WWE News : Survivor Series Buyrate Disaster Analysis

The preliminary buyrate for WWE Survivor Series is in, and it isn’t the Christmas present Vince McMahon would have wanted.

The event headlined by Randy Orton vs Big Show drew a measly 179,000 buys. This preliminary number will in time rise, but it is a pretty good indication of the rough region of buys. It makes the 2013 event the worst drawing Survivor Series since the early 90 s, and buys are down from 208,000 in 2012. Here’s a break-down of the event’s recent performance –

It’s a wake up call to WWE after they booked an Autumn series of PPV’s with screwjob finishes – fans will not stand for a bad product. The number also reflects the terrible promotion of the PPV, there was no real thought or selling point in promoting the event. Surely WWE must have known their effort would not be good enough, Big Show vs Orton is hardly an enticing prospect. Why not book The Undertaker on the show as I suggested in a WhatCulture feature and give the event a reason to be bought? They failed in this, and they have got what they deserve with a buyrate under 200k.

What now for the WWE, how do they address this poor performance? I actually don’t think they will be that concerned about it. Vince McMahon lost interest in Survivor Series as a “Big 4 event” many years ago. There was talk a few years back about dropping the event completely, and I suspect they now will eliminate the “Survivor Series” brand from 2014. It’s a bad number, but with the company focusing on a WWE Network launch in 2014, pay per view business is less vital than it once was.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t look good. The poorly promoted “B Level” pay per view Payback did more buys than Survivor Series. The “Big 4 events” in WWE are now Wresltemania, Royal Rumble, Summerslam and Money In The Bank. After a storied history, Survivor Series is now a dead concept.

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